Category: treatment

Eating for Life

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You can get weak if you don’t eat while staying indoors in the time of the pandemic.

I have the opposite dilemma. Most people snack on comfort food in times of stress. I don’t ordinarily feel like eating in this time.

Though I’m Italian I eat to live I don’t live to eat.

I urge everyone who must stay home to keep up with eating as healthfully as you can. Should you need to compromise remember that this is only a temporary setback.

I’m not a fan of having soup for lunch every day. I’d rather make a salad.

Since the availability of a food delivery is unpredictable I understand the need to make temporary adjustments.

In New York City you can dial 311 to request that food be delivered to you.

Though I miraculously was able to score a FreshDirect time slot I was shut out again after that.

Since living life in this pandemic is a week-by-week and often day-by-day reality this is where I say it pays to adapt and be flexible.

If readers can do only one thing, I would urge you to eat as healthfully as you can.

Getting Help When You Need It

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Sometimes you can’t make it on your own. We all could use a little outside help.

I’ve been in remission for over 27 years because I’ve taken medication every day as it was prescribed.

After witnessing a police event where I live in New York City I’ve come to have zero tolerance for stigma.

Stigma in society comes in many forms like sexism and racism and in other guises.

If you ask me stigma is a disease that needs to be healed.

Without love and compassion given it is harder for a person to recover.

Recovery from mental illness, recovery from ongoing microaggressions, and recovery from any physical illness or other setback isn’t easy when others in society judge you as not being worthy of compassion.

One month ago I was trapped inside a library with an active shooter situation in the building right next door.

This event only solidified the empathy I have for everyone.

“Everyone’s safer staying inside the library. No one can enter or exit your building” the lead cop told us.

A negotiation team straight out of a 1970s S.W.A.T. TV show episode was talking with a woman who had a firearm.

The cops wore body cameras and body shields.

I was trapped in the library for over an hour. Finally the lead cop came in and said: “It’s over. You can open up.”

The emotionally disturbed person (EDP) with the firearm had been taken to a hospital.

If she had killed someone or the police had killed her the incident would’ve been headline news.

Witnessing firsthand the prowess of the NYPD officers in negotiating with the armed woman I could respect and admire the cops that resolved the matter with no violence incurred on anyone’s part.

The event hit home with me the idea that there’s no cause to be hating and judging people.

“It could’ve been me in that armed woman’s shoes” is what I thought.

With a change of circumstance I could’ve remained permanently ill for the rest of my life. Only I got the right help within 24 hours.

I do not take lightly the need for love and compassion in the world.

In the coming blog entries I will commence talking about the Mind-Body Connection.

My journey of self-improvement started over the weekend with one tiny change.

Would making this change give me better health?

I’m going to document the link between mental health and physical health.

My stance is that I have zero tolerance for stigma.

I envision a world where every one of us is free to be ourselves.

I choose health. I choose to share the tactics that have helped me stay fit and active.

It’s my hope that I can empower readers to seek help if you need it.

For there can be no shame in seeking to get help for whatever illness, setback, or hardship you’re experiencing in life.

Getting the right help right away can make all the difference.

 

Finding the Right Career Fit

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I’m going to talk in coming blog entries about topics linked to National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

After this I’m going to return to talking about fitness and nutrition.

My contention is that schizophrenia recovery outcomes are rosier than most people think.

It’s hard to peg how many people are doing well because most of us with jobs and careers and other successes are afraid to disclose.

Yet I refused to live in hiding. To remain silent would be complicit in reinforcing the rhetoric that no one can recover.

My motto is: “If you can see it, you can be it.”

Peers need to know that there are people just like them who have succeeded at finding and working at jobs we love, not just jobs that pay the rent or are the means to get off disability.

We shouldn’t be pigeonholed into accepting jobs simply because a vocational counselor thinks someone with our particular disability is suited only to those kinds of job.

What if you don’t want to be a janitor yet you’re told you should do that?

What if you want to do something that you’re told is impossible because you have a certain diagnosis?

Either way I’m here to tell you that a myriad of jobs exist. You can even create a job for yourself that fills a need in society.

Having the job or career you love can reduce the impact of your disability.

I say: if you want to work, you deserve to try to make that happen.

In the end working at the job or career you love is a kind of adjunct treatment.

The Real Deal About Drinking Water

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Dr. Chatterjee in his book How to Make Disease Disappear urges readers to drink 8 glasses of water per day.

Doing this will give you more energy and clearer skin. It flushes out toxins and helps with weight maintenance. Drinking water also prevents headaches.

Loyal readers I’ve resisted doing this. Again it’s a matter of making healthy habits as convenient as possible.

You can buy a 27-ounce water bottle from KleanKanteen.

Bring it to your job or wherever you’re going in the morning. Fill it up and drink throughout the day. Add a squirt of lemon for taste if you want.

I’ve read in at least two places that you can divide your weight in half to arrive at the number of ounces of water to drink each day.

It might not seem fair that you have to drink all that water every day to reap health benefits. Yet not doing so can indeed lead to disease.

The benefits of drinking water are real not conjecture bandied about to sell plastic bottles of water. Ditch the plastic and buy a KleanKanteen bottle to carry wherever you go.

Drinking two glasses of water in the morning is a great way to start the day.

In the next blog entry I’m going to talk about one of the other Pillars: Relax.

Lifestyle and Disease

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It has been hard for me to believe that a person’s lifestyle–their habits and behavior–can cause disease. I always thought that when the ball falls on your number on the Roulette wheel of health it’s random who gets ill and who doesn’t.

After reading How to Make Disease Disappear I’m confident that lifestyle choices are the root of most disease. In his book Dr. Chatterjee links a person’s lifestyle to the onset of the disease that is prevalent in modern society.

It’s coming up on the third anniversary of my father’s death. He died of Stage 3 colon cancer that spread to his liver.

I urge everyone 50 and older to get a colonoscopy. With a history of cancer in my family I have to do this too.

Nearly every day I think of my father. He didn’t exercise. He didn’t maintain active social connections later in life. After he retired he spent two or three hours a day watching FoxNews.

Irrespective of his choice of Conservative state news channel the fact is watching excessive TV causes death according to Dr. Chatterjee.

In his book How to Make Disease Disappear this British M.D. also states the irrefutable fact that drinking cola, soda, or soft drinks causes Type-2 Diabetes.

Years ago I told a beloved friend to “can the cans” and stop drinking cola. He wouldn’t listen to me. It was no surprise to me when last year he told me a doctor diagnosed him with diabetes.

Whether diet or regular Coke or Pepsi or other cola the outcome is the same: ill-health if not guaranteed diabetes.

I’m writing these blog entries because I care about readers.

And yes–I care that billions of dollars are spent on treating disease instead of preventing disease in the first place.

Reaching for a pill isn’t always the answer. Which is why I’ve refused to take drug company money and become a spokesperson for Pfizer. Dr. Chatterjee has cured his patients without resorting to pharmaceutical intervention.

The point is preventing disease is cheaper than managing disease once it’s occurred.

 

Moving the Needle to the Left

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I’d jumped into writing about the visionary book.

It seems I’d wrote that I’d write next about how to shift the needle to the left of the dial.

My intent in titling my memoir Left of the Dial was to demonstrate how doing the things you love can help you heal.

Living your life left of the dial–joyously, creatively, and passionately–if you ask me is a beneficial method of healing.

I’ve reckoned with the fact that becoming a trial attorney wasn’t in the cards for me in this lifetime. I was destined to go left when everyone else goes right.

Seeking emotional harmony between your thoughts and feelings is a way to shift the needle to the left. This can be via talking to a therapist. It can be via reducing the nonstop reliance on your electronic devices at all hours of the day and night.

What has changed my life for the better has been exactly this: shifting the needle to the left of the dial.

In the  book How to Make Disease Disappear Dr. Chatterjee recommends keeping a grateful journal. You can buy a hardbound journal to keep at your night table. Write three positive things that happened to you that day before you go to bed.

Dr. Chatterjee refers to a pioneer in the positive psychology movement who asked his daughter three questions every day: “What did you do to make someone else happy?” and “What did someone else do to make you happy?’ were two of the Qs.

Giving joy to others as a daily ritual is the foolproof way to feel good yourself.

We can’t control whether other people do good things for us or simply act for self-gain every day. This isn’t our concern. If we want to feel good, the best way I know to do this is to help others feel good.

Living a healthy life. Living whole and well.

These things are possible when you live in recovery.

That’s the ultimate premise of Left of the Dial: you don’t have to spend the rest of your life in endless hell. You can heal.

 

How to Make Disease Disappear

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how to make disease disappear

Dr. Chatterjee in the above book details his 4 Pillars of Health: Relax – Eat – Move – Sleep.

This British M.D. is able to cure patients of disease without using medication.

The 219-page book I read in one day. I recommend loyal readers of my blog buy the book or at least check it out of the library.

For years now I’ve thought that who gets sick is random. It seemed like if the ball landed on your number in the Roulette wheel of ill health you’d become sick.

Now I know without a doubt that disease can often be caused by poor behavior and lifestyle choices.

In the coming blog entries I’ll talk in more detail about topics in How to Make Disease Disappear.

I care about readers. The route and routines to get to a life of fitness are often simple and cheap. Preventing disease is doable.

In the U.S. unfortunately the medical model is predicated on disease management instead of illness prevention. This has to change if we want people in society to be healthier and happier and wealthier.

The money we spend managing disease after it occurs would be better spent offering healthier food choices in the marketplace. It would be better spent on effective health campaigns.

In the book How to Make Disease Disappear Dr. Chatterjee tells readers point blank that traditional diet advice is wrong. For details about the right way to go about eating read his visionary book.

Each of us has to take our health into our own hands. We can’t rely on the government to have our backs as regards our health.

The book is only 219 pages. It’s an easy read.

The Truth About Recovery

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No one else has written about this before either. Again I’m the first to tackle this dynamic in my blog. I want to talk about the truth about recovery.

Not everyone feels like they’ve recovered. This is the distinction. It’s an individual accounting of what your life is like.

In the 1990s I lived at home while I worked at a terrible insurance office job I was ill-suited to do. On paper it might have looked like I recovered because I had a j-o-b.

Only I told my mother: “I want a life.” She responded: “You have a life.”

Little did I know or could articulate then how my time on earth would be forever altered by moving to Brooklyn and becoming a mental health advocate.

It must have been in my subconscious that I understood there was more I was being called to do. Only trapped in that cubicle hell I couldn’t clearly see where the road ahead would take me.

This is partly why I think it’s a mistake to measure a person’s status solely by external markers of success like a house and car and job.

In the 1990s I hadn’t “recovered” in a way that was soul-enriching, life-affirming, and mood-elevating.

This begs for all of us the question: “What is recovery?”

Recovery should be a self-defined lifestyle. You should be the one who’s able to determine the direction of your life.

The question for each of us to ask is: “What kind of recovery do I want to have?” AND “What kind of life do I want to have?”

In the next blog entry I will talk about shifting the needle to the left on the VU meter of life–the theme of Left of the Dial.  This is how I was able to live the kind of life I wanted to have.

I will talk about how to take action in the direction of your dreams.

For there are a myriad ways to recover–as multitudinous as there are people living in recovery.

Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness

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I’ve installed the book Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness on my iPad.

The author has a number of physical illnesses that aren’t visible to the eye. Yet her advice could also help individuals living with mental health issues.

Her no-nonsense advice about when to disclose to a romantic partner is specific to those of us with physical woes. Yet it might just be good practice for those of us with mental health conditions too.

A therapist has told me not to disclose too quickly.

You can see my blog entry at the Left of the Dial blog for my take on this: reel the person in on your fishing line with your real self apart from the illness. After they’ve taken the bait, introduce mental health into your conversations.

Talk about how Kanye West has revealed he has bipolar. Talk about a person in your own life who has an emotional illness. Then bring up your own diagnosis in the bare-bones way. You don’t have to reveal every single detail of the symptoms you’ve had.

Ilana Jacqueline’s refreshing take on disclosing early in the dating game intrigued me though. How soon is too soon? How long is too long to wait?

It depends on what your gut or your intuition is telling you is the right time to reveal your condition.

Either way, Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness is a short yet informative read that I’m confident could benefit mental health peers in other ways too. Like for disclosing on your job and requesting a reasonable accommodation. And for creating a job where you can work from home.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to give this book 5 stars on Amazon.

I recommend this book without reservation.

Left of the Dial

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My goal in writing Left of the Dial was to chronicle everything that happened after I recovered.

I wanted to dramatize the events that led me to where I am today.

Stories of young people who received the right treatment right away document that a few of them no longer needed medication.

I wasn’t so lucky.

I’m here to tell you that there’s no shame in taking medication to be well.

There’s also no shame if you don’t become a librarian like I did or do the things that other people do.

My goal in telling my story was to offer hope for healing and having your own version of a full and robust life.

In 1988 when I was first diagnosed it was unheard of for a person with schizophrenia to live in her own home and have a full-time job.

Today as of August 2018 you’d better bet it’s possible for more people living with mental health issues to have their own home and work at some kind of job.

This is predicated on getting the right treatment as soon as you need that treatment.

Over the years there’s been near-endless rhetoric about the broken mental health system. About the fate of peers whose illnesses are chronic and persistent and severe. About how their disability progressed to a permanent state because they were denied treatment. Over the years copious amounts of press have been devoted to this.

With no disrespect to anyone I simply wanted to document my story to dramatize what happens when psychiatry gets it right.

Before the Elyn Saks book and before my book there were few positive portrayals. The other first-person accounts hewed to the “misery memoir” genre. This emboldened me to want to publish Left of the Dial.

I say: the goal isn’t to become a famous Ivy League attorney or to become a famous author. The goal is to take inspiration from our stories to craft your own recovery.

Elyn Saks has ongoing symptoms by the way. Proof that you don’t have to be in remission to have a good life.

The truth is that a minority of peers won’t recover as well as I have or Elyn Saks has. This makes it more imperative to advocate for those less fortunate.

The way I see it those of us who are doing well owe a debt to society to do what we can to help others recover.

By telling my story I wanted to show what happens when psychiatry gets it right.

In the coming blog entry I’ll talk in more detail about the myth of being a superstar.